By
Peter Samore
|
Posted - Jun 10th, 2014 @ 7:11am

OGDEN — A reporter showed too much skin for the
comfort of an Ogden bailiff working the security
checkpoint at a courthouse entrance, so he asked her to
cover up her arms.

On her first day as the newspaper’s justice
reporter, Morgan Briesmaster wore a sleeveless blouse to
the courthouse on June 3. The blouse went up to her neck.

A bailiff in Ogden’s Second District Courthouse
feared that the Standard-Examiner newspaper reporter would
commit a dress code violation because of her sleeveless
top, which might result in a judge tossing Briesmaster
from the courtroom.

“That morning, I checked at 8 o’clock and
noticed that it was 88 degrees,” she said.

Briesmaster, not wanting any trouble, got a heavy, black
parka to cover her bare arms and sat in court for two and
one-half hours in June.

“Not only had I been hired three months prior by the
Standard, it’s my brand-new beat,” she said,
“and upon entering the courthouse the very first
time, I was told I was doing something wrong.”

Briesmaster again sucked it up today at the Second
District Court in Farmington. The temperature reached 87
degrees, but she wore long sleeves.

I was fearful upon entering that courthouse, because I was worried I would be discriminated against because of this. They probably didn't even recognize me.

–Morgan Briesmaster

“I was fearful upon entering that courthouse,
because I was worried I would be discriminated against
because of this,” Briesmaster said. “They
probably didn’t even recognize me.”

But she endured some inequity.

“There was someone there that we were actually
reporting on that I had noticed had come into the
courthouse about a month prior,” Briesmaster said.
“We had taken a photo of her in a sleeveless
blouse.”

Briesmaster stressed that she was never forced to leave
the courthouse, but chose to take up the bailiff’s
advice without complaining.

She took everything in stride to do her job, and she
considered the experience “comical.” She
believes that she, her newspaper and the courts all
learned valuable lessons.

Utah Courts spokeswoman Nancy Volmer said there are no
regulations for sleeve lengths. Courts do not allow
shorts, halter tops and flip flops, but judges can run
their courtrooms however they seem fit.